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Monday, 18 August 2014

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World!

My great-grand uncle Horace Melvin Porter was 26 years old, full of life and part of a big loving family, the 6th of 11 children, from Ulverton, Quebec. His parents and some of his siblings moved to the United States 1900 to 1902. Horace took his responsibilities very seriously, and was working as a Motorman for the Montreal Tramway System in 1903 when theemployeeswent on strike against their employer, the Montreal
Street Railway Co. Horace didn't know about strikes, he just wanted to do his job and attempted to take his tram out of the barn. There was a rioting crowd throwing stones and bricks, and Horace was hit in the head with a brick.I didn't find anything in a local newspaper, but the Eau Claire Leader, Wisconsin newspaper wrote an article about the
event, saying: "A motorman who attempted to take a car out of the barn was
assaulted so badly that in all probability he will die."

Well, Horace did not die for another 45 years, all of which he spent in theProtestant Hospital for the Insane in Verdun, Quebec. My grandmother worked so my mother was looked after during the day by my great grandmother, Mary Jane Porter King. Mary Jane was Horace's oldest sister, and she would take my mother with her once a week to the hospital to visit Horace. My mother remembers being made to sit outside on a bench to wait, as she was too young to go in the hospital. Horace died in 1948, and was laid to rest beside his parents in Ulverton.

It seems from what I have read that this was a progressive hospital and they believed in giving the patients work to do to keep them occupied. They had a farm that was worked by patients, and some patients also did crafts that were sold to get money for the hospital. I don't know how much Horace was able to do or how aware he was. Horace was on both the 1911 and 1921 Censuses as an inmate at the Verdun Hospital. If you are missing an ancestor, did you look in the census or registers of the local Insane Asylum?

My step-son's great-grandfather, Dr. William Herbert Wiley was the owner of Blythewood, in Greenwich, CT.

You can do a search at google or Internet Archive keywords "asylum" “insane asylum”, “mental institute”, “lunatic asylum”. Also check censuses and burial grounds of the Insane hospital or asylum.

4 comments:

Interesting to come across this post, this week. I'd found some of your listed sources already and will take a look at some others. I'm working on a post about my 2nd great grand-aunt, who after a series of tragedies regarding her children, ended up first in the Utica (NY) Insane Asylum, and later, after Utica declared her chronically insane & a county sheriff's jury adjudged her "a lunatic", in the St. Lawrence Hospital at Ogdensburg NY (nicer name for insane asylum & nicer overall, applying the newer theories) for 19 years until she died. She had a sad life. My post will be up later this week.

I'd love to read your post when you are done, leave us a link. I think our ancestors were lucky to have been committed at a time when the attitude and the methods in the patients' care were changing for the better, coming out of the dark ages!

I started getting spam so had to activate the moderation. Then I got so into reading your story I almost forgot to publish your post hahaha.

You write so well and truly brought Rosa to life for me. She sure had her share of tragedy! It seems the more you find out, the more questions you have - isn't that the way? I added your blog to my reading lineup so I can read your other interesting stories. Thank you so much for sharing.